(A World with Monsters) Monsters in the Yard
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: [AU] Monsters lurk in all dark places, whether that's in streets or homes or minds. Both of them fight monsters: in different ways, different capacities - but maybe they're fighting the wrong monsters...or maybe there are just more monsters they could, and should, be fighting.
1. 1-01

**A/N:** The first in the "A World with Monsters" series – an AU of Dawn/Dusk. This was supposed to be for the lotus-eater machine trope for the Hat challenge – but it got skewered somewhere before the first chapter so no longer. But still, credit goes where credit is due and that's where the inspiration came from. :D

This _is_ for the Building Blocks Challenge at the DFC, using song prompt 81 – Yellow Flicker (Beat Lorde). The lyrics were surprisingly…fitting. Snippets of the song will precede each new arc…and let's see if the song for the next fic in the series will be equally fitting.

Enjoy!

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**A World with Monsters**

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**_Monsters in the Yard_**

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_"I'm a princess cut from marble, smoother than a storm  
And the scars that mark my body, they're silver and gold  
My blood is a flood of rubies, precious stones  
It keeps my veins hot, the fires found a home in me  
I move through town, I'm quiet like a fire  
And my necklace is of rope, I tie it and untie it…"_

_Yellow Flicker  
_Beat Lorde

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**1.01**

She was no sleeping beauty sleeping on a bed made of brass and gold and wrapped in the richest gown in the palace while waiting for her prince charming to walk up and peck her on the lips. Hell, she wasn't even asleep, let along dressed up prettily and waiting for a prince.

There wasn't even a such thing as a prince or a pretty gown in this world. Just nightmares, nightmares, nightmares…

Chains rattled. She laughed and dug her nails in to her sin. 'Sorry, puppy,' she whispered at the sharp pricks. She'd sharpened them especially. Just in case.

Well prepared, she thought. For when her little puppy grew up in to a big puppy and lost his head. But not enough. Never enough.

She laughed again. To herself and to that little big puppy that managed to snore away senselessly and still create hell. 'Never, never, never,' she chanted to herself. 'Never, never, never.'

If anyone could see her now, they'd be…shocked, to say the least. Perfect little doll Sayo with her head tumbling down. The girl who could watch blood and skin and other human bits splatter about her and not even flinch. But there was no blood or skin except maybe under those sharp nails of hers. Just nightmares: nightmares that made reality look like a breeze.

And until it was morning and the sun came up and the monsters prowling the streets faded back into their shadows, the nightmares would go on.

Even if she did manage to stave off sleep this night.


	2. 1-02

**A World With Monsters**

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**_Monsters in the Yard_**

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**1.02**

She was infamous for staring at all sorts of icky situations in the eye and not even flinching, but that was with her long sleeves and low drooping hat and the nice hard leather of her holster against her hip.

And that was when their pitiful excuse of a sun was still up.

"Daytime", everyone called it. A safety blanket from the monsters that stalked their streets in the "night". Their entire system of time was ruled by that – and had been ever since the sun had shrivelled in to the shadow it now was.

But she'd never been a sunny person, so it suited her just fine. Sure, her internal clock had needed a bit of adjusting, rearranging the night-life – but, in a way, she was still living the night life. Just during the "day".

And the night was accompanied by a little nightmare maker that'd been born from a sweet little hunting dog. And before, she'd be the one chasing whatever scent he threw up.

Now, she was the one playing catch and he was the one running after her. Even though the shadow of a sun was in the sky now and the shadows of nightmares still trailing after her like a lovesick puppy.

But it was a new day and it was time to get her hands dirty without a crack in her neatly crafted mask…

And it was a good thing for the world that she did have that pretty mask, wasn't it?


	3. 1-03

**A World With Monsters**

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**_Monsters in the Yard_**

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**1.03**

She caught up easily. Her opponent this time was clumsy and slow and didn't have anything on her.

Disappointing, frankly, because it wasn't enough for her to plunge into her role either. To plunge her in to the _day_.

But this was her job and he was her target and even if it was disappointing, she had to haul her over to HQ and the Chief.

And then she got to pry answers out of him, which may or may not wind up being more challenging than the chase.

She didn't think so. He looked like he'd wet his pants already. Scared of a little girl like her.

Shame, really. Even if she was in a black body suit, full with the goggles. There were crazier people out there. And the monsters hiding in the shadows. Hiding everywhere.

It was guilt. That was all it was. Because conspiring with monsters was against the law and punishable by hell.

And her job was to catch those people and drag them to that hell.


	4. 1-04

**A World With Monsters**

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**_Monsters in the Yard_**

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**1.04**

He screamed, inside the room. She left her puppy in there but stood outside herself because inside her head, there was a little her screaming and it made her want to barf.

All of them were monsters, after all.

Phasco was alright. He could defend himself from those sorts of monsters and her as well, even if he had to tear grown men from limb to limb and break his teeth while doing it.

Before she had the luxury of someone looking out for her, she'd tried to do that too. But human teeth are far more fragile, regardless of whether they're angels or demons underneath. Some people just wore their skin inside out. Pretended they were one when in fact they were the other and the screaming proved it.

Because they were very different kinds of screams: the truly afraid and the sadists who couldn't help the little glimpse in the mirror within their own cowardice.


	5. 1-05

**A World With Monsters**

**_Monsters in the Yard_**

**1.05**

He stared at her when she finally went in and he'd been all worn down. He stared at her with pleading eyes as though she'd feel sympathetic. As though she'd cut him loose from his chains and set him free – set another monster free into the world.

She laughed inside though outside her face was set in stone. She was a monster hunter and he'd be getting no sympathy from her. Not when she could smell those bodily fluids on him. The urine stench was strong and overpowering the blood, but this was a bitter tang mixed in.

They finished with him and finished him and zipped him up in a body bag and the smell was still there. They'd wash it out by tomorrow, probably.

Wasn't her job. She'd already done her part and she was free to go.


End file.
